July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Government spending on renewables
and other green energy programs would be halved and incandescent
light bulbs dropped from federal regulation under the fiscal
2014 Energy-Water Development appropriations bill passed today
in the House.

The 227-198 vote on H.R. 2609 was largely along party
lines.

The $30.4 billion bill would bring nearly across-the-board
cuts to the Energy Department, the Army Corps of Engineers, the
Bureau of Reclamation and other energy- and water-related
agencies and offices. That funding would be $2.9 billion less
than fiscal 2013 appropriated levels and $6.3 billion less than
what was actually spent -- a figure that included supplemental
disaster aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

The funding level assigned for fiscal 2014 created
difficult choices, said Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen, a
New Jersey Republican who is chairman of the House
Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee. The
priorities, he said, were national defense and the Corps of
Engineers.

“The reductions we had to make to the applied energy
research and energy development programs will shift more of
their work to the private sector,” he said yesterday on the
House floor.

Proposed Consolidation

The bill would provide $24.9 billion for the Energy
Department. Nearly $1 billion in cuts would come from a proposed
consolidation of the offices for electricity delivery, energy
reliability, energy efficiency and renewables. The newly
combined account would receive $982.6 million, about half the
amount appropriated in fiscal 2013 and two-thirds less than what
the administration requested.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E),
which supports the development and commercialization of new
energy technologies, would receive $50 million, $215 million --
or 81 percent -- less than what was enacted in fiscal 2013.

Three Republicans offered amendments that would roll back
unpopular federal regulation of some popular consumer items and
cancel advertising for alternative energy programs.

Implementation and enforcement of federal regulations
related to refrigerators, freezers and incandescent light bulbs
would be prohibited under a measure offered by Representative
Mike Burgess of Texas. A proposal by Representative Marsha
Blackburn of Tennessee would halt the Energy Department’s plans
to regulate ceiling fans, while Representative Tim Walberg of
Michigan sponsored an amendment that would eliminate a national
media campaign promoting alternative energy. All three
amendments were adopted by voice vote.

Winners, Losers

“The American people don’t need more government
bureaucracy telling them what energy sources they should use,”
Walberg said on the floor. “The government needs to get out of
the business of picking winners and losers in the energy market,
and certainly shouldn’t be funding advertising campaigns on
behalf of private green-energy firms.”

Democratic amendments that would have increased spending on
renewables and energy-efficiency programs were rejected.
Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, the top Democrat on the
Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, criticized cuts to
alternative-energy spending.

‘Foreign energy dependence is our nation’s chief strategic
vulnerability,’’ Kaptur said on the floor. “The bill abandons
America’s quest for energy independence, which has the potential
to create millions of new jobs.”

Corps Projects

As passed, the bill would provide $4.9 billion for Corps of
Engineers projects such as dredging rivers and harbors -- $104
million, or 2 percent, less than what was appropriated in fiscal
2013. It would also bar the start of new projects in fiscal
2014.

The bill would breathe some life into a contentious plan to
dispose of nuclear waste in a remote area of Nevada. It would
include $25 million to support the establishment of a depository
for the toxic refuse near Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles
northwest of Las Vegas -- a site that was first approved by
Congress in 2002. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada
Democrat, and others fought for years to block it, and the Obama
administration terminated funding for it in 2009.

The White House has threatened a veto of the bill, which
the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement of
administration policy would “require draconian cuts” and
“drastically underfunds critical investments.”

On the other side of the Capitol, the Senate Appropriations
Committee approved that chamber’s version of the Energy-Water
appropriations bill, S. 1245, by a vote of 24-6 on June 27. It
would provide $34.5 billion, including a 25 percent increase in
spending on renewables and energy efficiency programs. The
difference between the House and Senate bills is just part of a
$91 billion top-line gap between the two chambers’ discretionary
spending plans.